By Maura Trivette, Staff Writer
Everyone knows about thrift shopping and how popular it has become among Millennials and Generation Z individuals. It’s the modern way to shop. But now, a host of newer online apps are taking thrifting to the internet and making buying and selling items easy for everyone.
Popular apps like Etsy, Poshmark, and eBay that help users buy and sell on the internet, but several newer apps, such as, Depop, have risen in popularity for anyone interested in buying or selling clothes.
Depop is an online selling platform. It works just like an online thrift store, except it has much more variety and users can sell their own clothes for a profit.
“I was originally going to give my clothes to thrift stores, but I saw that people online liked to buy clothes for pretty cheap so I decided to sell them,” sophomore Caitlyn Celaj said after being asked about her success selling items on her Depop. “I have a lot of unused clothes in my closet and selling them actually makes me happy because I know they’re going to get some use out of them.”
Depop is also a popular app due to its simple, user-friendly layout. All users have to do is create an account, link their PayPal, and start listing items they want to sell.
Junior Pia Jastrzemski uses Depop too and says that the process is pretty simple:
“I got the hang of it right away,” junior Pia Jastrzemski said. “It’s really straightforward.”
Students use other popular platforms to sell clothes online, such as Poshmark.
“Poshmark is a little bit more difficult to use,” Jastrzemski said. “I feel things on there are more expensive than on Depop, but I still like it.”
Sophomore Rylee Young, frequently uses an app called Mercari to sell her unused clothes and other items.
“It’s really nice, especially for teenagers, because we buy all these clothes, and then we always feel like there’s nothing in our closet and now you just have a ton of clothes in your closet,” Young said.
Young has sold items from perfume to clothes to an old iPad on Mercari. She also uses an Instagram account for selling clothes that more local people buy from. But Young also uses social media to her advantage, using Instagram to reach some people who aren’t on the clothing-selling apps.
Like thrifting, the upside to using these online platforms is that clothes are being reused rather than just thrown away. Users are also supporting individual sellers and small businesses.
“Selling used clothes online is like trading clothes,” Jastrzemski said. “It’s not promoting fast fashion brands, which is something I like about Depop and Poshmark.”
Once users have an account set up, the process for selling clothes is also simple. The seller will be notified that someone has bought an item they’ve listed, and they have about five days to pack the item and mail it. The buyer sends their shipping address and the payment to the seller’s PayPal account. Sellers go to the post office and mail it off, completing the transaction.
Since it’s so easy to create an account on these platforms, anyone can do it. This leads to a lot of competition, meaning it sometimes takes months for buyers to see posted items. This makes being specific about listed items and writing clear, thorough descriptions important.
“The more you detail an item and the better the pictures are, the more people will want the item,” Young said. “When they’re buying something at the thrift store or somewhere, you’re going to hold it up and inspect it, but on a website, you can’t do that.”
Some enterprising online sellers are using more creative approaches to attract buyers, such as upcycling. “Upcycling” is when someone goes to a thrift store and buys a bunch of clothes, or just uses their own clothes they are going to sell and fixes them up to look newer or more modern before listing them.
Trading clothes online is also popular. People can post an “In search of” (ISO) online and see if someone has the item they are interested in, while also listing items that they may be in search of.
Especially now in a pandemic, using apps like Depop and Mercari makes it easy to quickly find inexpensive, quality clothes, and is a great way to clean out your closet. So, if you’re bored and sitting at home, go through your closet and try selling some clothes.
Sophomore Maura Trivette can be reached at 23trivettema00@daretolearn.org.
